Physical basis of sustainable development

TL;DR

This paper explores the physical principles underlying sustainable development, emphasizing the sufficiency of energy resources and astrophysical conditions to support ongoing complexity and neg-entropy increase on Earth.

Contribution

It presents a physical perspective on sustainability, highlighting the role of energy and astrophysical constraints in enabling continuous development.

Findings

Energy resources are sufficient for sustainable development.

Astrophysical conditions support increasing Earth's complexity.

Development characterized by rising neg-entropy on Earth.

Abstract

This work is based on the talk given by Csernai at the Blue Sky International Conference in the Buda Castle on October 30, 2015, Budapest, Hungary. The human development on the Earth is analysed based on basic physical principles and the available resources. The areal and material resources are obviously finite, but the very fundamental energy resources are sufficient for solid and sustainable continuing development. These energy resources can compensate many of the constraints arising from the finite material resources. The development is going in the direction of increasing complexity on the surface of the Earth, due to the increasing green mass and the developing biological and material complex structures. This sustainable development is enabled by the astrophysical conditions and constraints and these conditions provide a good possibility for continuous further development in a sustainable way. This development is characterized by the increasing neg-entropy on the surface of the Earth.